I'm Not Sure What This Means....
The nature of my work requires a moderate level of information security. We don't deal with national secrets or anything really interesting, so it's hardly cloak and dagger document management. In fact only occasionally do research reports self destruct after I finish reading them. My investment ideas blow up with regularity, but that's a topic for another time.
To facilitate protecting proprietary and confidential information there are all sorts of policies about who can do what, when information is released, and what happens to hard copied documents. We have garbage and recycling cans within arm's reach, large bins around the floor for material to be shredded, and a couple of overly complicated contraptions to collect highly sensitive paperwork for thorough destruction. Each container is appropriately labeled: Refuse, Recycling - White Paper Only, Confidential Material To Be Destroyed. All this makes sense, though I have to admit seriously doubting that anything my co-workers and I produce justifies the level of destruction implied by locked boxes wheeled out of the building by armed burly men.
One receptacle on our floor has long puzzled me. Inside a cabinet under the stainless steel, super-deluxe, double filtered water dispenser in the employee pantry is what appears to be a trash can. I've seen people discard items they do not want into this can -- I've even done it myself. Its location suggests that this can's purpose is to receive food and food-related waste. On the front of the cabinet containing the can is a sign that reads "Trash Only". I'll freely admit to lacking understanding about what many people are thinking most of the time. However, I just can't figure out why supposedly intelligent, well-educated, grossly overpaid people need a sign to tell them that trash cans should only be used to dispose of unwanted items. Is it common practice for people to store important documents in trash cans and then return later to be shocked that their essential information is no longer available?
To facilitate protecting proprietary and confidential information there are all sorts of policies about who can do what, when information is released, and what happens to hard copied documents. We have garbage and recycling cans within arm's reach, large bins around the floor for material to be shredded, and a couple of overly complicated contraptions to collect highly sensitive paperwork for thorough destruction. Each container is appropriately labeled: Refuse, Recycling - White Paper Only, Confidential Material To Be Destroyed. All this makes sense, though I have to admit seriously doubting that anything my co-workers and I produce justifies the level of destruction implied by locked boxes wheeled out of the building by armed burly men.
One receptacle on our floor has long puzzled me. Inside a cabinet under the stainless steel, super-deluxe, double filtered water dispenser in the employee pantry is what appears to be a trash can. I've seen people discard items they do not want into this can -- I've even done it myself. Its location suggests that this can's purpose is to receive food and food-related waste. On the front of the cabinet containing the can is a sign that reads "Trash Only". I'll freely admit to lacking understanding about what many people are thinking most of the time. However, I just can't figure out why supposedly intelligent, well-educated, grossly overpaid people need a sign to tell them that trash cans should only be used to dispose of unwanted items. Is it common practice for people to store important documents in trash cans and then return later to be shocked that their essential information is no longer available?
2 Comments:
I think the reason this confuses you is because you are not a happy recycler. Simply, you do not value recycling. For those who do, they would understand that a garbage can labeled "Trash Only" is where they should put any item that can't be recycled easily -- paper, plastic, metal, etc. For instance -- a banana peel. Unless, of course, the employee drives a hovering DeLorean (think Back to the Future 2) and thus saves banana peels for fuel.
Let me know if I can explain any other mysteries...
your first two sentences are corrct. recyling is a tech fix, a myth-laden dupe on guilty Americans, and an energy nightmare. why spend energy to haul non-precious materials to a facility where more energy is spent processing those materials so that even more energy can be expended hauling them somewhere else for reuse? glass, paper, and plastic are NOT scarce but they are heavy or bulky per unit of value, creating enormous costs. secondly, until someone explains to me how its environmentally sound to foul water (a much more scarce resource in much of the world -- China now has less than 1/3 of the clean water it needs) in order to 'reuse' paper, glass, and plastic i'm not even going to enter the debate.
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